Patient Care

At UC San Francisco, we don’t just treat diseases, we treat individuals. We put our patients’ priorities at the center of our care, and strive for breakthrough discoveries so that we can improve people’s lives.

Research

UC San Francisco is leading revolutions in health – and those revolutions often start in the lab. From basic science to clinical research, we are constantly pushing scientific boundaries and earning worldwide recognition for our discoveries.

Education

At UC San Francisco, we encourage our students to approach health care issues with critical thinking and a spirit of inquiry. As tomorrow’s health and science leaders in training, UCSF students embody our passion for improving the human condition and pushing health care forward.

Those awarded honorary degrees include individuals who are recognized for their contributions to athletics, human rights, clinical research, education, the humanities, the arts and the law.

Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman awarded the other degrees to Henry "Hank" Aaron, baseball Hall-of-Famer; Geoffrey Canada, champion for children in Harlem; Charles Gillispie, Princeton's Dayton Stockton Professor of History Emeritus; Judith Jamison, dancer and choreographer and artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; and Princeton alumnus Robert Rawson Jr., legal expert and long-serving member of the University's Board of Trustees.

Desmond-Hellmann was lauded for "her lifelong dedication to medicine," which "led to a stellar career as an oncologist, clinical scientist and one of the world's most accomplished businesswomen. Now chancellor of the University of California-San Francisco, she is applying to the public sector the experience and wisdom she gained as a physician-scientist in the United States and Africa; as a world leader in the development of groundbreaking drugs effective against common human cancers; and as a senior executive of the world’s most successful biotechnology company. Her career exemplifies the breakthroughs that can occur when scientists and physicians work together to create new knowledge and then translate it into effective medicines."

Read the news release on the Princeton University website. Watch a video of Princeton's commencement ceremony. The honorary degrees are awarded at about 62 minutes into the video.